Genealogy Gems Book Club: Our featured book is Running Away to Home by Jennifer Wilson. In this book, Jennifer takes us on a once and a lifetime genealogical journey where she walked in her ancestors shoes and lived among their descendants.

If you enjoyed this episode and the video, please do me a favor and click the thumbs up button for the video at YouTube, you’ll find it right under the video.And you’ll also find ways there on Youtube to share the video through Facebook and Twitter for all you Tweeters out there. Thank you for sharing!

Special announcement

Plan on attending the Southern California Genealogical Writer’s Conference June 7, and Genealogy Jamboree June 8-10, 2012.On June 7 Steve Luxenberg and I will be kicking off the Writer’s Conference with a very special “Conversation with the Author” session.Steve will join me on stage to sit down for an in depth discussion about Annie’s Ghosts and the job of crafting such a compelling family history story. Then throughout the writer’s conference Steve will be teaching a variety of classes to help genealogist’s write their family’s stories.It’s an incredible opportunity to learn from the best!

I will also be teaching 4 additional classes throughout the conference weekend, so I certainly hope that you will join us there for an amazing weekend at Jamboree!

I’m honored that my Genealogy Podcasts and Blogs 101 class is included in the group. I really enjoyed introducing more people to podcasts and blogs I’ve heard from a lot of folks that this really opened their eyes to a medium they didn’t realize was out there for them to enjoy for free.

Debbie writes: “Wow. All I can say is Wow. I am a 52 year old mother of 4 in Bountiful, Utah. I have been watching the RootsTech Live presentations online and have just finished watching yours. It was amazing and inspiring. I consider myself somewhat tech savvy but have veered away from Blogs. (Just the sound of the word Blog infers something that will weigh you down.) But after your presentation I am anxious to try iGoogle and add blogs and podcasts tailored to my interests. I had no idea. And thanks for pointing out the Google blog search option. All the genealogy-focused search options now available through Google are exciting. I am hopeful you will add all your RootsTech presentations to your podcasts. They sound fascinating.”

And during that presentation I encouraged viewers to get their own genealogy blog started so that they can get information out there that might help them connect with other genealogists researching the same family line. And Carol wrote me shortly after the conference to let me know that she did just that! She writes:

Marlene also wrote in about RootsTech. She says: “The Rootstech Conference was so awesome. I learned so much about podcasts, I am willing to try it out. But first I am the craft queen, especially when it comes to crafting my family history. The last day of the Rootstech I had to leave early. I didn’t get to your last class that I had waited so long for. Do you have a podcast of the steps for creating the crafts you make with your family history?? I see the instructions, but I wanted to watch you in action. p.s. Thanks so much for your signed book on find family through newspapers. I can’t wait to get started. Marlene”

Hi Lisa, I love your podcasts, but I'm still catching up!! Back in 2009. you ran a series of "Name that Tune" challenges, which I absolutely loved, I think I have old time music in my DNA. It took me a day to recognize the "Missouri Waltz," I knew "The Dark Town Strutters Ball" right away; when I was little I named my doll "Honey" and always thought of those first lines "I'll be down to get you in a taxi, Honey...", I knew "I'll see you in my dreams" don't know if you are old enough to recall "Sing along with Mitch" when it was on TV, but we had all Mitch Miller's Sing Along albums and "I'll See you in my dreams" was among them.

Okay, so that brings me to the reason for this email. In Episode 56, you celebrated "I'll See you in my dreams" and then played a brief 30 seconds of another tune, it was a violin instrumental.

Well as I said I've listened up to 59 and I've never heard the result for that last tune. I think it may be "Thine Alone" by Victor Herbert. It was from the operetta "Eileen". Herbert was born in Ireland and emigrated to America, his more famous songs include "Ah Sweet Mystery of Life" and "The March of the Toys" from "Babes in Toyland" but he seems to have written hundreds of songs.

You had a loyal listener named "Jeannie" who called you with the names of the first 4 songs, I laughed at the similarity in our names, but anyway, I'm going crazy, did anyone else ever recognize that song? If you go to iTunes, there is a good instrumental version of "Thine Alone" on the Album "The Music of Victor Herbert & Sigmund Romberg" performed by George Melchrino. It is a lovely song.

I can't tell you how many wonderful memories those songs gave me!! Yes, I am working on my Family History and really enjoy all your podcasts, videos, blogs and advice. I did finish yourFamily History: Genealogy Made Easypodcast series, got to get to work on theFamily Tree MagazinePodcasttoo!!